Snow
by XtinethePirate
Summary: Eight years after the Eve wars, it is snowing on Christmas Eve. A soldier never forgets those who have fallen....Implied 6x13 relationship, no major angst...


  
_Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Noboby owns Gundam Wing. Gundam Wing is a GOD, a religion in and of itself! Repent ye sinners who have not been absolved in the mecha violence and serious hotties of this series!!!!!  
..... ok, I'm done now.....  
  
_

Snow

It was December 24.

Snow had fallen the night before, blanketing the world in its soft hush, cloaking the starry sky behind dark and brooding clouds. It was cold, cold and quiet, as he slipped out of the house, his footsteps barely making any noise as he swiftly slipped away from the house. He sighed as he walked, the soft white cloud of his breath dispersing slowly in the darkness under the trees. Only once did he turn back to glance at the house, seeing the twinkling Christmas lights on the tree through the window. The rest of the house was silent, thankfully; she hadn't heard him leave.

The forest was silent this evening, carrying no echoes of the laughter that had filled it during the day. Only the vague shadows of half-finished forts, built and trampled in a miniature snowball war were left to tell the tale of the day's activities. A smile touched his lips momentarily as he remembered. Laughter, smiles… so many things that he had thought lost to him a long time ago… he remembered those small joys now, he knew their worth.

But it was something else he always remembered on this night, a night of twinkling lights and bitter cold. It had been so cold in space, in that sea of endless stars. No matter what tomorrow would bring, it always hurt to remember.

He tilted his face back, peering through the spiky darkness of twined pine boughs, laden with their ivory burden. The stars were there, shining dimly, dispassionately, above him. So far away… in space they had seemed so near; as if he could reach out a hand and touch them, snatch one from the sky to make a wish.

He knew what that wish would be. It never changed, and was as futile now as when he first wished it. One more chance… it would never come to pass. Prayers and hopes and dreams were useless against that bitter reality. He had always been told that the stars held the faces of those who were once loved; if one knew only where to look, they could find their lost love, looking down on them. He had never found it to be true, not after years of searching the night skies in vain.

Slowly, the sky grew dark, wisps of dark cloud being drawn across the moon and velvety sky, erasing the constellations that were both familiar and strange to him from his sight. Then the first flakes began to fall, soft and lilting, twisted this way and that in an intricate dance, prompted by the vagaries of slight breezes that ruffled through his hair.

Snow… tiny stars of crystalline perfection; each one unique and beautiful. They brushed against his face as he stepped out from the protective cover of the trees, turning his face to the sky, relishing in the bitter, cutting cold, the numbing of his senses. It helped him to forget, sometimes, the pain that still lay in his heart. _He_ had always loved the snow, would watch it with that same quiet smile that he wore whenever they were together, a smile that the world never got to see. A smile that had bewitched his heart the first time they had met.

It was hard to forget.

A hand touched his shoulder, and he turned, startled, broken from his reverie. Noin smiled up at him in exasperated indulgence, her arms wrapped tight around herself for warmth.

"Zechs, what in the world are you doing out here this late?"

He looked back up at the sky, considering for a moment. "Nothing…I just wanted to see the snow."

"And you couldn't do that from inside?" she arched an eyebrow at her recalcitrant husband, and his strange ideas. "It's a good thing the kids didn't hear you, they would have thought it was Santa, and we would have never gotten them back into bed!" She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her breath coming in small clouds against the dark night air.

"I suppose you're right." He replied absently, pulling her into his arms almost automatically, wrapping his coat around her. She smiled, pressing her face against his chest with a sigh of contentment.

"It's been almost eight years now… since AC 195…" she murmured, her arms moving to encircle his waist. "I'm glad you're not brooding over it any more."

To that, he made no reply, only pulling her closer against him, her head nestled under his chin. She had always felt safe in his arms, safe and loved, not knowing that he looked back at the sky, searching in vain for the hidden stars.

And around them, the snow continued to fall….

La Fin

Opinions? Written one night that it was not actually snowing... but it _could have been..._ even though it was the middle of May. You never know......


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